A student recently said she was triggered by a fifteen-point quiz she took. She became depressed because she felt she wasn't as prepared for the test as she would have liked to have been. It wasn't even the test that threw her into a depression slump. She knew the test was just the "last straw" in a long line of big things she was not consciously aware of. But she didn't feel like she could tell anyone about how depressed she felt because the only reason she could give was that "stupid little quiz."

I am intrigued with the idea that like the stories we write with words, we are also writing our own and others' lives--with our words, yes, but also with our actions, our glances, and sometimes with our inactions. We are always creating, whether or we wish to or not. The things we choose to pay attention to, and the judgments we make of these things, create the person we will be in the next moment.